Heads-up, 3D modelers: Google’s SketchUp sold to Trimble

In a blog post today, SketchUp Product Manager John Bacus revealed the popular …

Heads-up, modelers, designers, and makers of things: Google's SketchUp is getting a new home.

In a blog post today, Product Manager John Bacus revealed the popular 3D modeling platform had been sold to Trimble Navigation Ltd. for an undisclosed price. Trimble hopes the addition will help extend its reach in such industries as architecture and construction, where its mapping, geolocation, navigation, and surveying equipment are already well established.

Google bought SketchUp when it was just a small startup called @Last Software in 2006, founded with the goal of "bringing 3D modeling to everyone." Today, it boasts millions of users, with 30 million SketchUp activations "in just the last year," according to Bacus.

Google currently offers SketchUp for free on its website, in addition to a Pro version priced at $495, targeted at modeling industry professionals. Worried amateurs can rest easy, however; "The free version of SketchUp is an important part of our world as well," wrote Bacus, "and that isn’t changing in the least."

According to Trimble, the two companies will continue to work together in maintaining Google's 3D Warehouse, a popular repository of user contributed 3D models that are offered freely for anyone to download and use. The repository, alongside other communities such as Thingiverse, has proven increasingly invaluable in recent years for amateur modelers with low-cost 3D printers at home.